Wedding Flowers: DIY vs Hiring a Florist

As flower professionals, we understand there are a lot of brides who opt to do their own flowers for their wedding. DIY is trendy! And it could be a fantastic experience! However, let's take a few minutes to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of doing your own wedding flowers.

Advantages

• If you are artistic, have lots of time, love flowers and enjoy arranging flowers, then this can be a very rewarding experience. 
• There may be a cost savings. (We'll talk more about that later)

Disadvantages

•           Added stress! Here are some potential stressors; 
• Flower quality.The flowers may arrive in poor quality. Inexpensive flowers are inexpensive for a reason. They either haven't been properly processed with quality floral products, or they're old or both! They may arrive to you blown, and falling apart.
• Difficulty and Perfection. It can be difficult to arrange the bouquets perfectly. Occasionally we ourselves, the floral design professionals, will redo a bouquet one or two times until we have it just right. If you are not accustomed to flower arranging, it can be quite difficult. It takes a new designer a minimum of year to be comfortable in designing for a variety of occasions. We take our weddings very seriously, only our experienced designers will work on the weddings. The pressure to make the perfect bouquet you envisioned may be too much. We personally want you, your guests, photographer, cake designer, etc to be Oohing and Aahing over your flowers. 
• Time consuming. The average wedding takes us a minimum of 3 days to complete. This includes our processing time when the flowers arrive, and the arranging of the flowers. As a bride there are many things on your final to-do list leading up to the wedding day. Do you really want "do wedding flowers" on that list?

"Florists train for years, know their blooms inside out, and have lots of experience. They’ll be at the flower market while you’re still fast asleep, they’ll go to lengths to find the perfect hue to match your palette, and perhaps most importantly, they’ll know how to deal with a flower related emergency, without breaking a sweat." - bridalmusings.com

So next let's look at the the potential costs. When we book a consultation (it's free) with a bride, we dedicate our time to discuss your dream wedding flowers. We have a knowledge of the price and seasonal availability of flowers. We can work with any budget. We know the potential necessary substitutions while still achieving the overall look and feel you dream of.

The bouquet shown above was created in our shop for $200. There are 3 colours of roses, spray roses, carnations, wax flower, thryptomene and seeded eucalyptus in this bouquet. First we create a recipe, so we know exactly what to order. We are experienced in ordering flowers so we know how much or how little is needed. For example, did you know that roses come in 25 stem bunches from our wholesaler? We need to order the entire bunch, even if our recipe calls for only 3 stems of roses. As our bride, you are only charged for what we use. Luckily for us, we are a very busy flower shop so the extra flowers can be used in other day to day arrangements once your wedding is complete. For a DIY bride though, you would need to purchase the entire bunch of roses, and just one bunch of roses retails at $125! So just imagine you wanted to order all the flowers to fill this recipe yourself. 

*prices based on quality premium flowers, not from a chain or grocery store. 

3 bunches of roses: $125 each

1 bunch of wax flower: $40

1 bunch of seeded eucalyptus: $35

1 bunch of thryptomene: $50

1 bunch of spray roses: $50

1 bunch of carnations: $40

Total: $590 plus tax

"If you know nothing else about floristry, know this: It’s not as easy as it looks.You might be renowned for making up beautiful bouquets in your home, but when it comes to creating ornate centerpieces of cascading roses, there’s something of an art (and a science) to it." - bridalmusing.com

So yes, you can use the extra flowers for other bouquets or centrepieces, but what if you didn't order enough? What if you break a stem while designing? What if you don't keep them at the proper temperature? What if you don't cut the stems properly and they die before the wedding? What if you use too much flower food and the flowers burn? What if your entire house if filled with flowers and your puppy spills the buckets? Do you have buckets for store them in? How will you transport them? Do you have all the proper tools for arranging your flowers (there's another additional cost right there)

So many questions!

It's not unheard of for a bride to run to a flower shop on the day of their wedding, in a panic because their flowers didn't come together as they had hoped, or they were too old and blown and all fell apart. Trust us, it happens. 

If you have read all of this and are still excited to do your own wedding flowers, here are some tips to hopefully make your experience easier. 

• Keep it simple. Consider mono-botanical, or just a few mixed flowers.
• Be flexible. Order flowers in season. Don't have your heart set on a particular flower or colour. Have a plan B. Or purchase your flowers by the stem, the week of your wedding, choosing fresh and seasonal. 
• Practice! Practice several times in the months leading up to your wedding. Think of it this way, would you make your wedding cake the day of your wedding? Design and sew your own gown without any experience? Flowers arranging can be just as tricky, it's not as easy at it looks. 
• Consider just partial DIY. Why not do some simple arranging yourself, but hire a professional florist for your bouquet, flower crown, etc? 
• Enjoy the experience. Be laid-back and happy with the end result, regardless.

Written by Jennifer Merritt, Floral Designer and Manager and edited by Sandra Miller, owner of Sandra Miller Floral Designs. Jen joined SMFD in 2012, with a passion to be creative every day. Flowers have become a wonderful and beautiful passion in her life. Come in a visit our wonderful, customer-focused team!